Again

Six years ago, Noah Wheeler went to meet his boyfriend, Dante Cerreto, at the airport, and his world ended. Dante was kissing someone else and claimed to be in love. So Noah took his heartbreak—and the sonogram pictures of their surrogate child—and closed the door on the big picture of what he thought his life would be, focusing instead on the piece of the dream he got to keep, being a father. Now on vacation in Las Vegas, Noah accidentally runs into the Cerreto family, and then the man himself, and learns that not only was he deceived, but Dante was as well. Now Dante wants to make up for lost time, six years’ worth, and to do that he needs Noah, the only man he’s ever loved, and Grace, the daughter he didn’t know he had, to give him a chance at happiness. Dante’s going to have to take a crash course in communication and seduction, though. Noah’s not going to fall in love just to be broken again.

Chapter One

I WAS lying on the floor in my living room when the door opened and Pete walked in. I knew it was him because I recognized the hiking boots next to my face.

“You made no sense on the phone.”

This news did not surprise me. I was more than a little distraught.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” he ordered.

I didn’t lift my head off the hardwood floor. “I went to meet Dante at the baggage claim at LAX, and he was kissing her.”

“Who?”

“Cassandra.”

“His partner.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Does it look like I’m kidding?” I asked him. As I was lying on the floor in the middle of my apartment, I was hoping he’d get it.

“Shit.”

I let out a long sigh. I was a mess.

“And?”

“And what?”

“And what did he say when you confronted him?”

I snorted. “He said they’d been in love for a while; he just could never figure out the best time to tell me.”

He sounded like he was going to hyperventilate.

I tilted my head back so I could see him. “Pete?”

“Jesus, Noah.”

He was taking the betrayal almost worse than I was.

“Sit down,” I told him because he was making me nervous, “and put your head between your legs before you pass out. Take shallow breaths.”

“Oh God,” he gagged.

As I watched him flop down on my green burlap couch and put his head between his legs, I smiled for the first time in three days. Leave it to my friend to out-diva me. He was much more dramatic than I would ever be.

“You alright?” I asked him after a few minutes of listening to him breathe.